Presently, an entire phrase or keyword needs to be entered and submitted on a mobile device before a search request and its associated search results are displayed on the mobile device. Some conventional searching methods present users with a list of popular searches to minimize data entry time, while others describe category-based searches to help narrow down search possibilities before the user performs a keyword or phrase entry for their specific search. These methods of searching require several keystrokes before any results are displayed.
Comparable suggestive search engines are available for desktop-based web-browsing and applications. See, for example, Google Suggest at <http://labs.google.com/suggest> (Aug. 11, 2006). These search engines, however, do not operate on mobile devices and are not easily transferable, in part because they are adapted for use with a full desktop or laptop computer keyboard for input. Other examples of conventional searching on mobile devices includes, for example, <http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/11/google-suggest-the-movie-no-mobile-version-yet/> (Aug. 11, 2006) and <http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2004/12/google_suggest_.html> (Aug. 11, 2006
In contrast to a desktop device, programming and developing applications for a mobile device requires many special considerations and involves many limitations. A mobile device application typically requires a small executable size or footprint. The network bandwidth available to mobile devices can be limited, especially in wireless or cellular environments, or other shared network environments. Network communication to and from a mobile device application typically requires data compression to provide acceptable user response times. Protocols used to transfer data to and from a mobile device typically also are designed to be small and require little overhead.
Compared to desktops, mobile devices typically have limited memories and CPUs. A mobile device's host operating system usually provides a much smaller set of services to applications as compared to services provided by a desktop operating system. Further complications arise in developing for a mobile device just by the huge variety and limited life-spans of mobile devices.
Despite existing search tools on mobile devices, there exists a need for improved searching mechanisms by a user on a mobile device.